by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist
Fall River, Massachusetts is no stranger to crime. It is, after all, the community that became world famous way back in 1892 when local resident Lizzie Borden killed her father and step-mother - with an axe! But criminal activity must be on the wane in Fall River because now the city's police are pursuing a suspect who had apparently had a change of heart and decided not to do the crime.
I heard about this case on the Bob and Ton radio show this morning as Rosie and I were making one of our occasional trips to Kansas City, and it intrigued me because of the ethical concern that was raised in the story.
A woman wearing dark clothing and dark glasses walked into a bank in Fall River, Massachusetts, a couple of days ago, and approached a teller. She told the teller to excuse her for a minute, and then she stepped over to a check-writing counter and spent a minute or two writing a note. The mysterious bank customer finished her note, seemed to give it some thought, and tore it up. She threw the scraps of paper in a handy waste basket and left the bank.
Bank employees, who apparently were having a slow day, took the pieces of paper out of the trash and put them together. On the pieced-together paper they found this message: "Give me the money." Bank officials then called the local police and reported the contemplated crime. The police, who were apparently also having a slow day, responded and are now searching for the would-be bank robber.
Pictures of the desperado taken from the bank's video surveillance are circulating in the area around Fall River - giving local crime buffs something to focus on besides Lizzie Borden and her bloody axe!
But has a crime been committed, and do police have cause to pursue this troubled woman? The gang at Bob and Tom were, as always, divided on the issue. My sympathies are with the would-be bank robber, if indeed that is what she actually was. Not only did she not rob the bank, she also did not even make a demand for money.
If the police do apprehend her, I suspect there will be charges flying in multiple directions - and the desperado may get her money anyway - as the proceeds from an invasion of privacy or wrongful arrest lawsuit. Some area lawyers may also make out like bandits!
Citizen Journalist
Fall River, Massachusetts is no stranger to crime. It is, after all, the community that became world famous way back in 1892 when local resident Lizzie Borden killed her father and step-mother - with an axe! But criminal activity must be on the wane in Fall River because now the city's police are pursuing a suspect who had apparently had a change of heart and decided not to do the crime.
I heard about this case on the Bob and Ton radio show this morning as Rosie and I were making one of our occasional trips to Kansas City, and it intrigued me because of the ethical concern that was raised in the story.
A woman wearing dark clothing and dark glasses walked into a bank in Fall River, Massachusetts, a couple of days ago, and approached a teller. She told the teller to excuse her for a minute, and then she stepped over to a check-writing counter and spent a minute or two writing a note. The mysterious bank customer finished her note, seemed to give it some thought, and tore it up. She threw the scraps of paper in a handy waste basket and left the bank.
Bank employees, who apparently were having a slow day, took the pieces of paper out of the trash and put them together. On the pieced-together paper they found this message: "Give me the money." Bank officials then called the local police and reported the contemplated crime. The police, who were apparently also having a slow day, responded and are now searching for the would-be bank robber.
Pictures of the desperado taken from the bank's video surveillance are circulating in the area around Fall River - giving local crime buffs something to focus on besides Lizzie Borden and her bloody axe!
But has a crime been committed, and do police have cause to pursue this troubled woman? The gang at Bob and Tom were, as always, divided on the issue. My sympathies are with the would-be bank robber, if indeed that is what she actually was. Not only did she not rob the bank, she also did not even make a demand for money.
If the police do apprehend her, I suspect there will be charges flying in multiple directions - and the desperado may get her money anyway - as the proceeds from an invasion of privacy or wrongful arrest lawsuit. Some area lawyers may also make out like bandits!
1 comment:
We have arrived at the nexus between almost doing a crime, which is a crime, and abandonment and withdrawl which is an affirmative defense to the commission of a crime.
The almost doing a crime is characterized as the inchoate crime of the underlying offense. In this case bank robbery. The defendant took steps to commit the offense, she wrote the note demanding money; that is a crime. Before the defendant delivered her note she abandoned the crime of bank robbery and withdrew from the bank; that is an affirmative defense she must plead.
It is arguable, and both side should be expected to weigh in at trial, that the note was a clear step towards robbing the bank or that the note was vague and the product of perhaps muddled thinking.
The result in this case depends on many variables. Does the defendant get a top notch criminal defense attorney or shuffled into the mix of an overworked and overburdened Public Defender without time and resources to properly defend the client? Is there evidence of other factors such as a mental disease or defect that rendered the defendant incapable of forming the requisite mental state to commit the offense charged? Is the Prosecuting Attorney a reasonable person looking for justice or a young gun looking for another notch on his gunstock? How will a jury decide the facts?
The law is seldom less clear and certain than in a case like this.
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